Learning About Children

Learning About Children Chapter 1

Child development is a fascinating subject • Constantly changing and discovering • How does studying children help you??

Help understand them and yourself • See the changes children go through • Helps learn positive ways to care for children

Child-centered society– society that sees children as important and works for their good • Some children experience neglect and abuse • Need safe environments • Chance to grow and promote health and well being

Why Study Children? • To understand yourself • Appreciate all that goes into a first word or step • Gain insight into your own growth, development, and personal priorities

To Be A Responsible Parent • Parents need to know stages of development • Know the best ways to respond to those needs • Have realistic expectations

Parents responsible for: • 1. Physical needs – right diet, well fitting clothes, need shelter, and physical protection

2. Intellectual needs – good experiences for their children • Develop skills needed to survive • Creative needs recognized

3. Social Needs – learn to form relationships • Need strong relationships from parents • Need a sense of belonging • Socialize– train a child to live as a part of a group, such as the family, culture, or society • Teach child about their culture– way of life within the group

4. trust needs –need to feel they can cope with demands of family, friends, and society • Able to trust parents • Gain confidence

5. love/guidance needs • Need love and support • Listen to children • Set limits • Share reasons for limits • Character– inward force that guides a person’s conduct

Protect Children’s Rights • Easily hurt • They are physically weaker • Cannot reason as adults do • Convention on the Rights of The Child – set out the rights of every child • 11 major categories

Convention on the Rights of the Child • 1. an identity – protect children’s names, family ties, nationalities • 2. a family – able to live with their parents unless this is not in the child’s best interest

3. express themselves and have access to information • Children have the right to express their views, freedom of thought, conscience religion, obtain information • 4. a safe and healthy life – right to live, to survive and develop, access to medical services, decent standard of living

5. special protection in times of war – refugees are entitled to special protection, under 15 should not take part in armed conflict • 6. an education – primary education free and required for all, secondary should be accessible to all children

7. special care for the disabled – have the right to special care, education, training • 8. protection from discrimination – rights apply to all children, practice their own religion, culture, languages • 9. protection from abuse –government shall have laws that will protect

10. protection from harmful work – right to rest, leisure, play and participation in cultural and artistic activities, protected from having to work that threatens their health, education, development • 11. special treatment if arrested – respect their rights

In the United States • Parents have the rights of guardianship • Determine their children’s upbringing • Control religious and moral taching • Each state makes laws and policies • School attendance, child labor, illegal drug sales

State protect children from the results of their own lack of judgment • Cannot make a contract • Treated differently in court than adults • Local laws can be enacted also • curfews

Working with Children • Careers focus on only one area of child’s needs • School cook – nutrition • Teacher -- intellectual

What is Child Development • Development – gradual process of growth through many stages, infancy, children, adolescence, and adulthood • Child development – scientific study of children from conception to adolescence

Child development focuses on changes that occur in children over time • Do research to gather information

Individual Life Cycle • Is a description of the stages of change people experience thoughout life • Stages based on changes in growth and behavior • Exact ages may vary • Basic idea where the stage begins or ends

Prenatal –begins at conception and ends about 9 months later at birth • Fastest rate of growth

Neonatal – birth through the second week • Baby physically adapts to life outside of the mother’s body

Infancy – two week until the first birthday • Develops the foundation for motor, thinking, language, and social skills

Toddler stage – begins at 12 months and ends at 36 months • Great strides in motor, thinking, language skills and begins to test his or her dependence on adults

Preschool stage – begins at three years and ends at six years • Spends hours play exploring social and physical world • More self sufficient • Rather stable self-concept

School age stage – begins at 6 years and ends at 12 years • Typical ages of elementary school • Master the basics of reading, writing, math • Interact with more peers • Learn by group instruction

Factors that Influence Growth and Development • 1. each child has unique, inborn traits • 2. child’s surroundings also play a large role

Heredity – sum of all the traits that are passed to a child from blood relatives • Environment – sum of all conditions and situations that affect a child’s growth and development

Heredity • Genes—sections of the DNA molecule found in a person’s cells that determine the individual traits the person will have • Genetics –study of the factors involved in passing of traits from one generation to the next

Genes influence your growth and development • Genes’ instructions are lifelong • Genes affect some parts of growth and development more than others (color of eyes, skin, teeth, mental ability) • Some genes determine whether a person will have a trait

Other genes affect the range of traits • Height, athletic ability • Whether a person will show or use the trait to its potential depends on the person’s life • Poor nutrition = not achieve full potential • Good nutrition = reach potential height

Environment • Affects growth and development • Food and rest part of environment • These condition shape the experiences children have • Studies show that babies’ brains develop at a slower rate if no one holds or talks to them

Heredity & Environment Combined • Working together • Genes control how quickly a babies muscles and bones grow (heredity) but a proper diet is important also (environment)

Brain Development • Brain research with high technology and advances in biochemistry • More information available now

Basic Wiring Occurs • Brain responsible for controlling most body functions • Neurons – cells that send and receive electrical impulses amongst each other that direct the various tasks of the brain • Wiring – network of fibers that carry brain signals between neurons • See page 30 figure 1-11

Axons – long, thick cables that transmit all the signals from a neuron to other neurons • Dendrites – short, bush cables that allow each neuron to receive signals sent by other neurons

Synapse – tiny gap between a dendrite of one neuron and the axon of another across which electrical impulses can be transmitted • Pruning – process of weeding out underused or weak connections between neurons

Heredity & Environment Interact • Heredity affects how many neurons a baby will have throughout life • All neurons present at birth • Overtime, brain continues to strengthen used pathways, but begins to weed out unused ones • Pruning – process of weeding out underused or weak connections between neurons

Rich sensory experiences create new dendrites, builds new networks for learning • Rich experiences, hugs, hearing music, learning a skill, exploring a toy • Strengthen and refine brain’s wiring

Windows of Opportunity • Timing is an important concept when it comes to brain development • Window of opportunity = prime period in a child’s life for developing a particular skill if given the chance to do so • Some windows are large while other are not

Language development is a good example • Some windows are small like vision which is completed in a few months • Once passed, more difficult to acquire • Skills are learned at the same time with windows of opportunity

Brain Plasticity • Ability of the brain to be shaped and reshaped, which is greatest early in life • Positive and negative effects • Depends on environment • Great deal of stimulation increases strength of the wiring

Positive Environment for Young Children • Best experiences are interaction with loving adults engaged in daily tasks/family type activities • Children need choices in what and how to learn – let them choose toys, story • Children need time to practice and master skills (repetition)

Brain Plasticity • Easily injured by abuse, neglect or other negative experience • Stress has a harmful effect on brain function • “fight or flight” chemical change like an acid bath washing over brain wiring

Plasticity • Lessens with age • 3 yr old is far less changeable than at birth

1. infant and toddler years are times of great brain activity and learning • 2. children who have developmental delay, live in unsafe environments, or lack stimulating experiences need early professional help to overcome these obstacles

3. a good early environment provides the best foundation for all areas of development • Early years are the most important for all areas of growth and development

Learning About Children